Trader Joe’s Gets It Easy?

In a concession to the weak economy, Whole Foods has launched a new PR campaign, in which employees give customers lessons on how to get out of the store without spending their Whole Paycheck.

The grocery chain has long faced criticism for its prices, but, up till now, CEO John Mackey has stood with Michael Pollan in the controversial “higher prices are good” (because Americans should learn what “real” food costs) camp.

But should chains with lower prices escape scrutiny altogether? So it seems to be for Trader Joe’s. The chain ranked low on Greenpeace’s sustainable seafood report card. The packaging is excessive, with even the produce sealed in plastic. The business model forces consumers to buy in quantities large enough to encourage waste. And most of Trader Joe’s products are made on equipment shared with everything you might be allergic to (dairy, nuts) or philosophically opposed to eating (dairy, meat).

But these criticisms seem to slip right off the company like they would off the teflon that’s also bad for you. Not only that, but a survey of influential Gen Y thought leaders, if that’s not an oxymoron, ranked TJ’s among the companies perceived to be greenest. Apparently low prices buy a lot of good will.

It’s true, I was happy to find 80 percent post-consumer waste toilet paper there last week, and there are many non-processed foods and relatively natural cleaning items on Trader Joe’s shelves, albeit wrapped in copious amounts of plastic. But the company—which, unlike Whole Foods, is privately owned—doesn’t even have a sustainability statement on its website. Whole Foods’, on the other hand, is immense and evolving.

Does TJ’s get it too easy? How would you compare it to Whole Foods, in terms of sustainability? Or is that an unfair comparison?